16th of September

Juarez has decided to cancel all 16 de Septiembre Mexican independence day festivities due to the narco violence. This is the first time this has ever happened, since the Mexican revolution.

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Illinois vs. Mexico In The Corruption Competition

Mexico is an incredibly corrupt place. Almost no transaction between a citizen and the government takes place without a little “grease” being applied. The state of Illinois stands out in America as one of the very most corrupt places. Politicians keep going to jail yet voters continue to elect corrupt politicians. In Illinois and lots of other places there is a well established culture of corruption, like in Louisiana and rural Texas.

I guess the good news is that while the judiciary and the idea of rule-of-law are mostly irrelevant in Mexico, they do somewhat work in Illinois. Even so, corruption persists.

People who are much smarter than me have dealt with this issue. How do you reform a corrupt country or state into one that is not? When we find the answer to this maybe we can help Mexico.

But at the moment we are dealing with a country where the entire culture accepts bribery and corruption. It goes without saying that Americans do not want this culture of corruption incorporated into America via immigration and the melting pot.

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Lindsay Lohan's Father To Open Rehab Clinic

He says that what he knows best is helping people with drug addictions. His claims that his new clinic will not use prescription drugs, instead relying on preaching a spiritual approach to treating addiction. Lohan said, “God will be a major element in recovery.”

God, a belief in talking snakes and spontaneously combusting bushes has sure worked out well in his family life and with his daughter Lindsay.

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Medical Science

Alzheimer’s has been known for a long time, but there still is no cure. Same with my version of leukemia. Or the common cold. Antibiotic resistance and bacterial diseases which no longer respond to “modern medicine” are growing.

This profession is mostly one big swindle. Prescribe heroin like pain killers to drug addicts and boner pills to 50 year old men. These old farts no longer find that they get turned on by their 50 something fat, lazy, rude wife. I guess not.

Orthopedic physicians repair broken bones, and they are GOOD. The docs who make large amounts of money injecting botox are mostly con men.

The doctors can't fix obesity or diabetes. Yup, most of these ghouls are best avoided.

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This Is Going To Be Almost Inconceivably Ugly

“This is going to be almost inconceivably ugly.” That is how Dr. Paul Krugman ended his blog post on 28 August 2010.

It is a short blog entry, but to me it is a monumental one. I hope he doesn't mind me quoting liberally from it. He begins, “I’m finding it hard to read about politics these days. I still don’t think people in the administration understand the magnitude of the catastrophe their excessive caution has created. I keep waiting for Obama to do something, something, to shake things up; but it never seems to happen.”

Let me interject that this excessive caution (I call it a lack of testosterone) means that Obama's version of Universal Health Care does not include a vigorous public option, making it very close to worthless. Guantanamo is still open, the unwinnable war in Afghanistan is raging and expanding, the financial reform legislation is tepid at best, Obama has approved offshore drilling in environmentally sensitive areas which even George W. wouldn't touch, and President Obama has also demonstrated that he is strongly anti-environmentalist and pro-nuke.

Dr. Krugman goes on to say: “the important thing is that all signs are that the next few years will be a combination of economic stagnation and political witch-hunt.”

All because President Obama has no balls. He had a major frigging mandate, and because he was afraid of getting sand kicked in his face by the racists and Republicans, he frittered away the mandate. Then Barack got his surrogates to attack his base in the Democratic party, calling the progressives and liberals “retards.” Sorry Mr. Obama, I hate to say it, but we now see that you are one pussified loser.


LINK TO KRUGMAN BLOG: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/28/failure-to-rise/

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What Happened To America's Economy?

America no longer manufactures much. A great many of our production and manufacturing facilities have been shut down and moved overseas. Much of this has been encouraged by American tax regulations. It has been more profitable to fire American workers and move production to low wage countries like China, thus evading workplace safety regulations, environmental regulations, and allowing children to work long hours which would never be allowed in America.

Selling collateralized debt obligations from one entity to another was turned into a highly profitable occupation. It was dishonest and in reality amounted to nothing more than fraud and theft, but the greed encouraged by the deregulation crowd made them arrogant and blind.

Our elected representatives in Washington, D.C. both allowed and even encouraged this. The Republican mantra of deregulation has now almost fully played out. We are beginning to see what the results are. The American economy is becoming a mere shell. We continue to flush vast amounts of money down the toilet of military adventurism. All while firemen, policemen, and teachers are being laid off.

Concepts like social fairness have become passe. The idea that the wealthy should contribute more to the country's welfare in shared areas like our nation's defense or building roads (progressive taxation) were declared by the Republicans, and even many of the blue dog Democrats as negative or even socialist.

We have stood by and allowed a large and growing part of our people to lose their jobs, their homes, and access to health care. And the so-called Christian Republicans are not concerned in the least. It just doesn't seem to bother them. No compassion at all. These people disgust me.

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Muslims

I lived in Europe for almost twenty years. I was the General Manager of the European Division of a food processing company. I got to know many Muslims. My friend Mohamed lived in Brussels and Mustafa lived in the southern part of Holland. Camara was from Senegal, and others were from northern Iraq, Morocco, and Afghanistan.

What I found is that most of the Muslims who I felt the most comfortable with almost never entered a mosque. Same with my Jewish friends. Their Mom may have been Jewish, but it had now been many years since they stepped inside of a synagogue. The same applies with the Christians. Most were highly secular and only saw the inside of church if someone died, if then.

It is not being a racist to say that in the twenty first century religious fanatics make me feel really uncomfortable. I find them ignorant, deluded, and frankly not very bright.

So it is not racism that makes me keep saying that Islam is defective and dangerous; it is my secular beliefs talking. And in America the same freedom of religion which allows these poor, fanatical, confused people to believe in talking snakes also allows me to openly not believe in any of these screwed up organized religions.

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The American Melting Pot

In the past immigrants to America were anxious to fit in and prosper in American society. They did their best to learn English, dressed in the typical American style clothing, and many people even legally changed their names to something which sounded more American.

The situation in the early 21st century is no longer a melting pot. It has become a mosaic where immigrants keep their foreign sounding names, continue to wear their foreign looking veils and garments, and rather than wanting to assimilate into the American culture want to retain the culture and the language which they grew up in.

So in those communities where there are large numbers of Mexican-Americans the radio, TV, and newspapers are gradually changing over to Spanish. When the school sends home a note for the parents it is now in English and Spanish.

By not demanding that these immigrants get very proficient in spoken and written English this is ensuring that these Mexican American immigrants will remain second class citizens. How cruel. And intelligent, caring people think that they are doing right by these immigrants by providing bilingual education and allowing this linguistic sloth to continue.

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The Evolution of President Obama

Vice President Joe Biden has warned that Obama is better than Bush. Yes, I agree, but as a campaign slogan "Better Than Bush" isn't real inspiring.


The following article by Doug Gibson is so excellent I have copied it intact:

“The centre cannot hold” is a from a William Butler Yeats poem, “The Second Coming” that’s in about every anthology of Western poetry. Although it deals with weightier subjects than a pol’s popularity, I think of “the centre cannot hold” when I mull President Obama’s slow slide from 60-plus approval ratings to the current low to mid 40s. In retrospect, it was naive to think that the president’s early high approval ratings would hold. Obama’s “centre,” or promise, meant distinct things to different people. Liberals, or the left, saw Obama as a leader who would restore legitimacy to populist, progressive, government-engineered programs to reform health care, the environment, the financial systems, infrastructure, education, job opportunities. They saw a Keynesian-inspired effort to transfer the United States into a conservative version of a European semi-socialist state, one that would offer security and a dignified standard of living to citizens yet require higher taxes, a loss of some previous options and a government headed largely by technocrats. It would be a mix of liberal Paul Krugman and conservative Bruce Bartlett.
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Independents, or moderates — the group that has mostly abandoned the president — anticipated an Obama who would end the reckless spending — military and domestic — that the Bush administration had created over 8 years. They also saw Obama as a president who would demonstrate managerial competence that the Bush administration had lacked, in the war and in natural disasters such as Katrina. They also expected a Democratic president and Democratic Congress that was veto proof to smoothly pass legislation. … Those conservatives who supported Obama believed his election would usher in managerial competence and a more prudent budget.
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The president has accomplished several goals — health care, financial reform, some success in the War on Terror — but in the real world, that involved deals with Congress and constant pressure from lobbyists (the financial industry spent ungodly amounts to water down financial reform) — but the finished accomplishments cannot match the campaign rhetoric that caused so many to swoon in 2008. Health care without a public option, no environmental reform, lukewarm financial services reform, and a stimulus deal that many Keynesians say isn’t big enough to dent a troubled economy has liberals in the dumps. Ironically, the cost of all these programs and projected trillion-dollar deficits have turned independents away from the president.
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Obama’s political inexperience has also cost him. Thoughtless remarks regarding race — in the Henry Louis Gates incident — and waffling over the New York City mosque proposal has made him more unpopular. What seemed like great oratory and depth of understanding two years ago looks to more of us as condescension and arrogance. On social issues, the president’s smartest move is to stay silent.
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In fairness to the president, it was never going to be easy to hold the centre in today’s political environment, which manufactures “issues” that last anywhere from an hour to a couple of weeks on the cable TV networks (anyone remember the New Black Panthers?). This has resulted in a more corrosive political era, one in which a partisan feels that he or she must defend a subject, rather than a circumstance. One must always be opposed to tax cuts, one must always support a pro-choice-approved position. We seek our news from the outlets we feel most comfortable with. As a result, the party out of power controls the debate.
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Democrats, who had Republicans flailing during the years 2005 to 2008, must be amazed, and shocked, that the Republicans are so easily controlling the debates today on most issues, particularly high-interest ones such as immigration and the mosque near Ground Zero. But that is politics today; if the Republicans take control of Congress in the elections this fall, they will encounter a more hostile media, and public, in 2011.

LINK TO ARTICLE: http://blogs.standard.net/2010/08/president-obama-discovers-that-the-centre-cannot-hold/

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Mexico – Failed State

Bribery has been the semiofficial system in Mexico for many years. If you needed for a government worker to simply do his job, you paid him a small bribe, some grease. If you needed to achieve results more quickly, you applied more grease. Of course this system favors the wealthy, and it destroys the idea of rule-of-law. Inefficiency and corruption thrive, accountability becomes nonexistent.

The judicial system in Mexico simply does not function. Take 100 serious crimes, like murder or rape. Maybe 2 or 3 are even investigated – the rest are just ignored. Take 100 of these investigations and only about 2 or 3 result in arrests. Once people are arrested they are tortured until they confess, they they are exhibited to the media, but out of 100 only 2 or 3 of them actually go to trial...the rest are released; especially if some grease is applied strategically. Very few people get convicted in a trial, and once in jail you find that the rich mobsters run the place, not the government authorities.

We are now beginning to see where such as system of dishonesty and corruption eventually leads. And we are just in the early phases. The drugs mafias clearly have the upper hand over the government. We are seeing a mass exodus from the country – both of human resources and money. I have recently seen Mexican Government numbers saying that 40% of homes in Juarez have now been abandoned.

Corpses which have had their hands, heads, and/or testicles cut off are hung by their feet from freeway overpasses almost daily. Normally there is a big hand painted sign nearby with some sort of a message from the killers to whoever they are especially pissed off at. Mass murders at teenage birthday parties are fairly common. The thriving and growing new profession in Mexico is kidnapping. Attractive girls are now becoming hit men for these narco mafias. Car bombings activated by cell phone have now begun in Mexico; the first was in Juarez.

Within the last few weeks stray bullets coming out of Juarez, Mexico have hit the El Paso City Hall and the campus of the University of Texas at El Paso. An American car driving by close to the border had his car shot, and kidnappings have begun here in El Paso. The El Paso Police had to close down a highway next to the border until the shootout was finished.

What does America need to do? If we legalized marijuana it might help a little, but the Mexican mafias have now begun diversifying away from just drugs and prostitution into much wider criminal enterprises like extortion and kidnapping.

It should not come as a surprise to anyone that many of the law abiding Anglo citizens of America are becoming quite intolerant of the Mexican culture and language. They see the same types of dishonesty and corruption spreading in America wherever large numbers of Mexican immigrants are settling. The Arizona backlash against illegal immigration by Mexicans should have been expected, and in some ways is almost logical.

I went into Walmart over the weekend. I asked the greeter to point me in the direction of sporting goods. She could not speak any English, at all. The greeter! Since I happen to be fluent in Spanish I asked her a second time speaking Spanish. She gave me good directions. I guess 10% -15% of the cars I see on the road in El Paso, Texas USA now either have Mexican license plates, or no license plates at all. Just total and complete disrespect for the idea of rule-of-law. Black SUVs with blacked out windows are becoming common. Very few of the TV and radio stations in El Paso broadcast in English; most now are entirely in Spanish, as are most of the newspapers.

On a personal level, I have a state issued license to carry a concealed firearm, and I am always armed when I leave the house. But this is just whistling past the graveyard. The big question is What does America Need To Do? What actions will be effective while being the least brutal?

Should we invade Mexico, then using Caterpillar bulldozers clear a strip of land one mile wide; a sort of No Man's Land? A free fire zone. Close off all trade with Mexico? We can take some of Obama's 50,000 non-combat troops out of Iraq and use them, their helicopters, and their armored vehicles to help patrol this no man's land.

Obviously this sort of extreme reaction seems completely out of line for a modern, civilized Democracy. Most of the Mexicans I have know over the last 60 years were fine people. Unfortunately just like with the Muslims, these decent people in the majority did not have the strength of character to weed out the corruption and the bad guys. It now is completely out of control and is overwhelming the entire country and the Mexican culture.

Americans have the right and the duty to protect ourselves from this cultural invasion of brutality, dishonesty, and corruption. The longer we wait, the harder it will be to reign in the bad elements of the Mexican culture.

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Van Gogh Theft

And the winners of the absolute dumb ass of the year award are hands down the Egyptians.

This same Vincent Van Gogh painting had been stolen before; from this very same museum. Yet only 7 out of 43 security cameras were working and none of the alarms were working. And they had been out of order for some time. The words slow learners doesn't do this situation justice.

So the Egyptians catch two Italians at the airport trying to leave the country with the Van Gogh painting. These Italians apparently are actually under arrest. But now it seems that maybe the painting has gone missing again.

And these are the same people who built the sphinx and the pyramids? My Oh My, something terrible has happened here. I won't suggest this is a genetic problem, so it must be somehow related to the Egyptian culture. I cannot honestly say I was very impressed with the Egyptians when I visited there many years ago. Horrible poverty and discrimination, and the rich can get just about anything they want.

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The Palestinians Are Depressed

A Reuters article today says that the Palestinians have all but given up hope. They think that the chances of their having a Palestinian state side by side of Israel is a pipe dream. They are depressed.

Say what? You are the same people who year after year call for the total destruction of Israel. You refuse to accept its right to continue in existence. And you still regularly shoot rockets from your territory into Israel. Just exactly how did you think they would react?

You are really fortunate that they have been fairly moderate in their punishment. If Mexico or Canada regularly shot missiles into the U.S.A. and kept it up for years, you can be certain that at some point the military and the warmongers would get the upper hand. We would bomb them back to the dark ages.

If the Palestinians ever get honest with themselves (and with Israel) the two state solution might come to pass. But thinking that the Palestinians are going to be permitted to move back to Israel and get their old land back, or thinking that Israel is going to give back Jerusalem shows that these Palestinians are living in a dream world.

The Jews defeated you militarily. More than once. Get over it. Accept and move on and life will get a lot better. Or you can keep up your propaganda calling for the destruction of Israel, and you can keep firing missiles into Israel. If so, you will continue paying a heavy price.

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Dutch Sailor Begins Solo Round The World Trip

Laura Dekker, the 14 year old Dutch girl, has begun her attempt to sail solo around the world. I admit to feelings of concern for her welfare.

At age fourteen I sure thought I was an adult. I was deciding priorities and writing the checks to pay our family's bills...my parents only signed the checks. I had a driver's license and my own car. I was an avid ham radio operator and was active in the El Paso Amateur Radio Club. Thanks to the lively Juarez, Mexico I was able to drink and go to various sex shows that would have made sailors blush. Back in America I was as sexually active as I was when I was in my 20's and 30's.

If you look just a short period back in history you will see that at age 14 men were fighting in the American Civil War. They were fighting and dying just as heroically or sadly as the old geezers. Look a little further back in time and it becomes clear that for much of human history people were expected to behave like adults and were treated as adults at this tender young age.

I wish Laura Dekker well, but I'm still a bit concerned.

LINK TO ARTICLE: http://www.rnw.nl/english/bulletin/dutch-teen-missing-ahead-solo-sailing-bid-launch

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President Obama Was Born As A Muslim

There is an article which was widely circulated today about the President's religion. Just like in a Jewish family, one's birth religion is determined by your mother's faith; this article claims that in Islam one's birth religion is determined by your father's faith. Barack's father was indeed a Muslim, and he made sure that he gave him an Islamic name too.

None of us has much choice regarding our birth parents or or birth circumstances. Obama has since renounced Islam and is now a Christian.

My Response: Ho Hum, So What? I like the fact that Barack Obama is a bit international, and is not some dumb ass provincial jerk like George W.

As long as the guy is 99.99% secular I don't care at all. If he begins making policy decisions based upon some mystical true believer faith which thinks talking snakes are real, then I'll get worried.

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One Worlders

President Obama deeply believes that all people are basicly good. This includes Republicans, Muslims, and the Chinese. If he just bends far enough; compromises America's core values enough, that he can work out a friendship with these people.

This is the same attitude as the appeasement of the nazis before WWII. The appeasers would do almost anything to avoid a fight with Hitler, Mussolini, and the other racists and right wingers. In the end they were shown that in fact there are times when one has to stand up and be willing to fight for what one believes.

China is hurting our economy big time. The Obama administration needs to slap an across the board 20% tariff on everything coming into the country from China. Barack wants to talk rather than fight. The Republicans are racists who hate him and everything that he stands for. Instead of getting down and dirty with them he lashes out at his own supporters, the progressives and liberals of the Democratic party. No amount of compromise will make the GOP like him. They are a lost cause.

The Muslims have a religion which openly supports cutting off young girl's clitorises, and burning down their segregated schools if these women dare to try and get educated. They are completely intolerant of other religions and beliefs. America needs to stand up for its core values and fight the Muslims, not try the appeasement routine. It won't work.

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Our Media Is Not Serving Us Well

Twenty percent of Americans think President Barack Obama is a muslim. This number has actually increased since he became president. There have been a number of news stories yesterday and today talking about this and the fact that a surprisingly large number of people still deeply believe that Obama was not born in America.

Especially the dishonest and partisan right wing media like Fox has stopped trying to inform Americans of the actual facts. To increase their profits and to help out the richest members of society, they are now frequently boldly just making up stories. In the bad old days we called this dishonesty or lying, and it would not have been tolerated.

A democracy cannot function properly without well informed citizens. This radical increase in dishonest propaganda by the right wing media will only harm America. The challenge is how to stop this intentional lying without violating the constitutionally guaranteed rights to free speech and a free press.

Obama supposedly used to be a constitutional scholar, teaching college courses on it. If he was not so severely lacking in backbone and strength of character, he would strenuously combat this intentional dishonesty in the media. He is so afraid of getting sand kicked in his face, I guess he will continue compromising the country's sacred values on this issue also.

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Why Are Educational Standards Going Down?

There are many smart and dedicated people involved in education. Yet a report today in the Wall Street Journal says that only about one fourth of the high school graduates in America are good enough in reading, English, math, and science to succeed in college. Most have not learned enough along to the way to prosper.

These educators want more money, higher salaries, more computers, and more paid vacations-trips to conferences. Most are competent and work at their chosen profession quite hard. Yet the kids are learning less and less.

My theory of the morning is the problem has been caused by encouraging, almost forcing, everyone to graduate from high school. Even the really dumb kids who are in no way academically oriented. Even the members of gangs who are there mostly to sell or buy drugs and maybe occasionally to get laid. Even the kids with terrible, dare I say psychotic, attitudes who consider high school to be the equivalent of jail time.

So the entire educational system has been dumbed down. Heavy duty.
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Our Low Testosterone President

Barack Obama has drawn a line in the sand, very clearly saying, “Over there is where those retard liberals and progressives are, and here is where I stand. I deny being one of those Liberals or a Progressive.” Well he didn't actually have the balls to come right out and say these words, but his message has been crystal clear through the words of his surrogates and via his own actions – or more often his lack of action.

He has now finished the war in Iraq, just like he promised. But there are still 50,000 troops in Iraq, and heaven only knows how many mercenaries and private security contractors. Our dishonest President seems to think that just re-naming these troops in Iraq will fool the American voters.

The Obama War in Afghanistan is going worse every day. Almost no one with any brains and experience thinks that we can possibly win. It is just different scenarios of how badly did America fail this time? He still doesn't have the strength of character, the intellectual rigor, or honesty to just wave goodby and bring ALL the troops home.

Yes, of course the Democrats are much better than the insane, racist Republicans. Well, at least somewhat better. When you look at the blue dog Democrats it sometimes is difficult to see where they in fact are better than the Republicans.

It turns out that he is anti-environmentalist, wanted cost control rather than universal health care, and on economic issues behaves like a Republican wannabe.

Mr. Obama has now gone back on most of his campaign promises. Choosing him after George Jr. sure seemed like the right thing to do at the time. What we didn't understand is that Barack Obama is a total wimp. No backbone, no strength of character. Afraid of a fight, always wanting to form some sort of compromise even when it is with horribly evil and dishonest people.

It hurts to realize and then openly accept that we were so terribly fooled.

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Barack Hussein Obama Backs Mosque at Ground Zero

America has a lot of religious freedom. I have the constitutionally guaranteed right to say that talking snakes are absurd; as is the idea of Mohamed riding up to heaven on his horse launched from a big rock in Jerusalem. But Americans do not have total, absolute, 100% deregulated religious freedom. As an American I cannot form a church which uses the swastika as its main symbol and calls for the murder of all Jews. I can't form a church whose main religious belief is that all black men and dark skinned foreigners should be lynched without trial.

We impose limits on our constitutional freedoms of speech (yelling fire in a crowded theater) and on our religious freedom. Timothy McVeigh was a mass murderer in the Oklahoma City bombing. He was an ignorant sicko political radical, and he also was a Christian. But he did not explode that bomb in the name of Christianity.

All of the men involved in the 911 mass murder were Muslims. The critical difference is that they performed this act of mass murder in the name of the Muslim religion. Female genital mutilation is routinely performed so as to adhere to the Muslim faith. Jews and Israel continue to be targeted for destruction in the name of the Muslim faith. And there is no big opposition inside the Muslim faith saying that these people are murderers.

The continuation of civilized society demands that we have the strength to make intelligent and well informed choices. Building a mosque anywhere in America supports this defective religion. Building a mosque very near to where the world trade center twin towers used to stand is a hard core slap in the face to all peace loving Americans. This has nothing at all to do with Christianity. I am not one bit religious, but I can clearly see that the Muslim religion is openly supporting and causing constant killing and wars. So I oppose the Muslim religion. Not because of some other faith, but because what the Muslims stand for is not compatible with twenty first century America.

The President apparently has no qualms about openly supporting the Muslim faith. Some are saying he has taken a courageous stand. But he sure didn't have any backbone when it came to supporting universal health care. His program was about cost control, not about universal access. He was happy to double to troop levels in Afghanistan. He approved off shore oil drilling in environmentally sensitive areas which even Bush-Cheney didn't dare mess with. His economic reforms are so weak and have such little backbone that they are laughable. Almost a Republican wannabe.

I worked in Barrack Hussein Obama's primary and general election campaigns, but now that I realize what he really is, I sure won't be working in his electoral campaigns again. I will continue to vote against the Republicans, but I will certainly not be voting for Mr. Obama.

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Cutting Military Spending

Looking back over world history for the last 3,000 or 4,000 years you find many great and powerful civilizations. Countries which were well educated and accomplished wonderful things in literature, medicine, art, and science. Unfortunately far too large a proportion of these empires have eventually been brought to their knees because of adventurism and excessive military budgets. And once they have declined and fallen, they do not seem to be able to learn from their mistakes and manage to recover. Thousands of years later most are still very poor countries, and are has-been places, living in the past. None that I can think of have ever really recovered. Once they are down, they are out for good.

At least in the past if an empire's military campaign was successful, they were able to plunder great wealth and perhaps add productive citizens and land to their country. Nowadays it is all just spend, spend, spend without getting anything back in return.

The conservative Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower tried warning the country about the growing “military industrial complex” but to no avail. We were too apathetic to get involved, and this was before the advent of video games, flat screen TVs, and rampant obesity. Once the military contractors achieve a certain level of wealth, they are almost unstoppable. And in America where the legislators are almost all on-the-take (via large campaign contributions), democracy has completely broken down. Human greed and the lust for power are very powerful forces.

It probably is already too late. In the modern vernacular, we are very likely well past the tipping point already. But maybe not. A 40% to 50% reduction in military, defense, and intelligence spending would not make America even a teeny, tiny bit less safe; and it might be enough to prevent us from continuing our fall towards becoming a third world country.

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Old Airplanes

The disgraced and corrupt Republican ex-Alaska senator Stevens was riding in a fully loaded (maybe overloaded?) 1957 airplane when it crashed. He and several others died in the crash.

The company I worked at for 25 years had a history of buying used but very high quality airplanes. A Beechcraft Bonanza, several Barons, and a couple of King airs. But then the brother in charge of sales took over, and they bought a cheapo worn 25 year old Cessna jet. A Cessna? The cheapest of the cheap. And a jet that is 25 years old.

All of these men would be horrified if their favorite daughter departed the east coast to go to college on the west coast driving a 25 year old car, much less a 1957 vintage. They would worry terribly about her safety and mechanical breakdowns.

It is a complete myth that aircraft maintenance is so high quality that these ancient airplanes can keep flying safely virtually forever. People keep letting their greed and their pocket books overrule their good sense. And they keep dying because of it.

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Liberal and Progressive Retards

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Say What?

Surely I must now be approaching the end stage of this leukemia (CLL). I was first diagnosed eight years ago, and most of this time has been almost normal. Recently I have developed all sorts of interesting symptoms. The lymph nodes on my neck, under my arms, and in my groin area have grown hard and are very large indeed. Some of them are rather painful too.

The body's immune system is not working well, so I come down with things easily. Hand washing and hygiene have become critical. And then it takes me a long time to get well. Tooth decay is a surprisingly major problem, even with tooth brushing several times per day.

When I get a small cut, the blood is not deep red any more. It is very thin looking and takes a long time to clot. The latest blood test confirms that my hemoglobin and red blood cell count are well below normal minimum levels, as are the platelets.

I am seeing rapid muscle degeneration. When I look at my arms or legs now I see masses of wrinkly old geezer skin that used to be filled with muscle tissue. I have gotten so weak that sometimes it surprises me what I am no longer capable of.

I cannot walk (even really super slowly) more than about 30 meters before I have to stop and rest. Close to zero stamina. Recently I have gotten very unsure on my feet. Often I look like I am horribly drunk because of it. Stumbling around like some sad old alcoholic. Who would guess that I don't drink any alcohol at all, and that I don't smoke pot or cigarettes. Haven't had any of these vices in many years.

The most recent surprise is that I have gotten very hard of hearing. Not quite deaf, but pretty close to it. I now have to turn the volume all the way up on my TV at night, and I really prefer to watch DVDs because they have subtitles. Thank heavens my little doggie has figured out my newly acquired deafness. So he has begun barking vigorously when the door bell rings. He never did this before.

I was thinking of looking on the internet and having a baseball cap or a Tee-shirt made up which says something like, SPEAK LOUD, I AM HARD OF HEARING. But my perception is that most of us have this hidden bias, thinking that people who do not hear well are also a bit stupid. So I guess I'll just continue saying, “Say Again?” while cupping my ear to indicate that I did not hear them. A lot of what many people say is just inane crap anyway. But sometimes it is important to be able to understand what other people are saying.

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Dying In An Airplane Crash

In the news today I see that the “bridge to nowhere” ex-senator Stevens of Alaska died in a plane crash. I hate to see anybody die, but that is one good way for sure.

It beats the hell out of gradually withering away from chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).

I've always admired those people who could just up and die. Quickly and without a big fuss.

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Tap Water Quality

In the United States the government has established a drinking water standard for palatability of 500 mg/liter (PPM). Once the water reaches 1,500 ppm it is considered to be brackish.

At the flea market last weekend I saw this total dissolved solids meter. The guy sold it to me for $2. It works fine. I had used the exact same brand and type of meter during my professional career, but I downloaded the user manual anyway. It had instructions for calibrating the meter.

I happen to have on hand some demineralized water which I had bought in Europe for my steam iron before I moved back to El Paso. I also own a very accurate balance type lab scale which I had bought at another flea market a few years ago. With these items I made up a standard solution of 3,000 ppm TDS water, which I used to calibrate the meter.

I was aware that our tap water is rather high is dissolved solids, but this was my first opportunity to accurately measure the TDS. The Results: No wonder this water leaves salt stains on my stainless steel sink if little drops of water are not wiped up and are left to dry out. The tap water here measures 500 ppm TDS. Very safe, legal, and drinkable, but near the upper limits of dissolved minerals.

Wiki Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_dissolved_solids

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Ego Boost

What a delightful ego boost. A few years ago I wrote a little book about fluorescent minerals which contained many of my pictures of the these beautiful minerals. Their appearance in normal daylight and their totally different look when they are illuminated with ultraviolet light.

I got an email today from a guy who bought my book and who really likes it. How nice!

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Civility

In the last ten years or so, and certainly in the last two years, civilized behavior in American society has degraded significantly. Rudeness, poor manners, disrespect, and intentional discourtesy have become common. These are not just the ravings of an old geezer, although the description does indeed fit me well.

I see it in the check out line at many stores. Respect for one's elders? Get real. One of the rudest and most disrespectful people I know is one of my own nieces. My thirty something son is not far behind her. Totally self centered. No compassion or empathy for other people.

If you go to an airport and fly somewhere on a commercial airline, you will see constant examples of this breakdown in civilized behavior. Or try driving your car at the exact maximum speed limit. You will be amazed at just how many people you see who lose it and become totally road enraged. How dare you prevent them from violating the traffic speeding laws and driving unsafely? A great many people are now vastly too important to use their turn indicators when driving, and the law restricting drivers from using their cell phones is widely ignored.

Treat someone badly at work, or at school, and they may well return with multiple firearms, gobs of ammunition, and begin killing people. If they actually have been treated unfairly, and if their life has developed in such a way that they think they have very little to lose, the chances of them doing something stupid increases.

This arrogance is not just an American phenomenon either. You see virtually the same sort of rudeness and high-handedness around the world. London, Paris, and Madrid are almost as bad. I think that the high population density may have something to do with it. Country people everywhere are more courteous, and they are more willing to be of assistance if you are in need.

Talking snakes, men living inside of big fish, virgins getting pregnant without having had sex, and drinking the blood/eating the the flesh of God's reanimated, decomposing dead son are all of course really stupid. But when humans have no external control from extended families or from some form of religion, they do tend to become ruthless.

Forecasting the future is somewhat difficult. I don't seem to be very good at it. I have been trying to imagine how this might play out if it continues to progress. People getting more arrogant and rude and self centered. What I see is not a pretty picture.

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Obama Harshly Criticizes Progressives

First it was Rahm Emmanuel calling the liberals and progressives “retards.” Now it is Robert Gibbs saying really bad things about the left. He is using the same sorts of lies to criticize the left that one normally hears on Fox. You can be certain that in each of these attacks, the men involved were just surrogates acting as President Obama's mouthpiece.

These people apparently aren't very bright. They don't seem to realize that it is the liberals and progressives who got Obama elected. They are now so blinded with the Washington D.C. desire to stay in power that they can no longer see reality and the truth.

Obama has not fulfilled his campaign promises. Not by a long shot.

He has not closed down all of the secret prisons and shut Guantanamo, nor has he brought all the troops home from Iraq. They plan to leave 50,000 troops and countless mercenaries (contractors) there, apparently endlessly. He has greatly increased troop levels and spending on the hopeless situation supporting Karzai's corrupt and inept regime in Afghanistan.

Gibbs says that the left wants Canadian style healthcare in America, to which he says, “That's not reality.” I would ask that Obama or Gibbs explain their defeatist attitude on healthcare. Please explain why Canada and many other countries can do a good job on this, but we can't seem to here in America. During the campaign Obama publicly said that he favored “single payer” healthcare. I have seen the YouTube video. When this proved to be just a tiny bit difficult, he didn't even support the far weaker “vigorous government option.” No balls or backbone. President Obama was working towards cost control, not universal healthcare.

Gibbs claimed very clearly that the left wants the Pentagon to be totally eliminated. That is the same sort of lie and exaggeration that I would expect to hear from Rush Limbaugh. Arguing that a substantial cut in funding for the Pentagon is in order is far different than asking for its total elimination. This kind of dishonest attack is vile.

Obama kept on most of the right wing Bush economics team. Since his background in economics is very weak, and he is surrounded by Wall Street crooks, of course his policies have favored super-wealthy people much more than the middle or working classes. His Wall Street reforms to re-regulate the financial industry are so timid and weak that they are laughable. The man said he was a community organizer. Organizer for what, the chamber of commerce and the Republican party?

Just before the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Obama approved offshore oil drilling in environmentally sensitive and controversial areas which even Bush-Cheney didn't dare. Obama talks a good game about green and renewable energy, but his actions have been the most anti-environmental and pro-nuclear of any president in the last 30 years.

He has not done much to help gays in the military, nor has his record on civil rights been anything to brag about. Other than appointing a Latina woman to the supreme court he hasn't done much to help women, blacks, or Mexican-Americans. In fact, more of these Mexicans are being deported under Obama than under Bush.

Illegal aliens from Mexico are still being treated like slaves by their greedy American employers. They are not accorded the same OSHA and other worker rights as American citizens. Keep them frightened and obsequious. It helps profits.

Prior to this latest Obama attack on progressives and liberals I had thought that I would very likely grudgingly vote for his re-election (but not work in his campaign). As weak and ineffective as Obama is, he is far better than John Boner.

Now that both Rahm Emmanuel and Robert Gibbs have been asked to attack the progressives and liberals my attitude is hardening substantially. It now is coming down to whether I will just stay home or whether I will actively work for the replacement of Obama and his wannabe Republican team.

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Predicting Alzheimer’s

There are reports in the news that a new test using spinal fluid is 100% accurate in predicting which people will get alzheimer’s. The problem is, there is not currently any cure nor an effective therapy for alzheimer’s disease.

I have chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). It has a similarity in that this disease is not curable either. There are physicians who make a big deal of the fact that they can accurately predict whether you have the aggressive type of CLL, or a milder and gentler type which likely will not cause any big problems for many years.

I prefer to face life with my eyes wide open, so I chose to get the prognostic testing done. I felt that I had a very good relationship with my employer, having worked for them and loyally served their family business for roughly twenty years at the time. So I felt entirely comfortable discussing with them the fact that I had been diagnosed with leukemia.

I will be the first to admit that I was more than a little surprised to see their reaction. Finding myself unemployed and uninsured (uninsurable too) confirmed that it was unwise of me to have shared the details of my medical condition with my employer. It appears that I probably should have been dishonest by silence and omission.

The same sort of ethical dilemma will face anyone who dares to be honest and tell their boss that a 100% reliable medical diagnostic test has indicated that they have alzheimer’s disease, and that it will only get worse.

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It Could Be So Much Worse

I spoke with the next door neighbor today. Her husband has left her, and she is now in the process of filing Chapter 13 bankruptcy.

On the other side of me I saw the cops haul away my neighbor in handcuffs a couple of weeks ago. I went and talked with them. An abuse case.

And I live in nice suburb of new houses. Gosh....

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Ben Franklin

Ben Franklin said and wrote many famous things, but one of my favorites is, “Waste not, want not.”

Whether it is to reduce one's carbon footprint in order to help global ecology, or simply a wise personal finance decision, not being wasteful is sensible. When dealing with the environment this is called conservation. Conserving what we have by not foolishly pissing it down the drain.

One can engage in endless conversations about the idea of non-existent clean coal, knocking off entire mountain tops to mine for dirty coal, deep water drilling for oil, fracking for natural gas, renewable energy like wind and solar, dirty terrorist bombs, and all the various hazards of nuclear energy. The source of energy chosen is indeed important.

Far more important is the fact that we can easily consume (waste) much less energy yet still keep our refrigerators, flush toilets, and comfortable air conditioning. It just requires one to think a little, and then make decisions which are socially responsible.

Driving down the freeway my air conditioning is working great, so is my CD player, and the cruise control. Yet the fuel consumption of my Toyota is less than half of that morbidly obese Ford F150 pickup truck with its V8 engine, or many of the SUVs you see on the road. I have changed out all the old style light bulbs in my house and replaced them with energy efficient compact fluorescent bulbs. These are routine day-to-day decisions.

You can be wasteful or you can try to conserve the planet's resources. It is up to each of us.

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Gun Ownership

Growing up we didn't ever lock up our house. We didn't even have keys to the locks...we could not lock the house if we wanted. It just wasn't necessary. We used to go to Juarez often too. To shop, to buy gasoline, or to eat at a restaurant. Not any more.

For many years I lived in western Europe, where it is almost impossible for a non-criminal civilian to own a gun. I got by just fine and didn't miss owning a firearm. When I moved over there I gave away the few guns I had to a friend of mine in who lived in south Louisiana. A fine, respected, ethical black man. Golly it pissed off a lot of white people. Hard to believe, but true.

I have been back living in America for 4-1/2 years now. I own a little house about 5 miles north of Juarez and the international border with Mexico. I live in a nice suburb of new houses, and over 90% of my neighbors speak Spanish in their homes. Many, probably most, are not even capable of speaking English. At the newsstand there are always Spanish language newspapers, but only occasionally one in the English language. Overwhelmingly, most of the TV stations here broadcast in Spanish. I guess 25% of the cars I see driving in the neighborhood either have license plates from Mexico or are being driven with no license plates at all.

And the El Paso City Council is doing everything it an to demotivate and anger the El Paso Police Department. For the second year running they have asked to re-open contract negotiations so that wages and benefits can be reduced.

Yesterday on the freeway I saw a road rage incident take place. Then one of the participants, a big full size hog of a pickup truck, forced the other car off the road and blocked it from driving. As I passed them, the big fat ass driver of the pickup truck had gotten out and was waddling towards the other car involved in the incident.

Every day I see on the TV news (or read on the internet news) about the latest atrocity by Mexican criminals and the drug mafias. The Mexican judicial system is near total collapse and breakdown. The Mexican law enforcement agencies are completely corrupt. A car bomb exploded in Juarez recently. It was activated by cell phone just like in Afghanistan or Iraq. Extortion is on the increase and so is kidnapping. Mass murders and dismemberments have become an everyday occurrence. It is now common for the criminals to dress up as law enforcement officers when they go off to do their killings.

A guy was arrested here in El Paso a couple of weeks ago. He had a siren installed on his car, and he had been pretending to be a law enforcement officer. Unfortunately for him, he pulled over a genuine undercover cop. Busted.

Under these circumstances I do not think that being constantly armed is a bad thing. It doesn't mean that I have turned into some kind of a gun phreak or a Republican. It certainly does not in any way imply that I am some sort of ignorant, ethnocentric, racist, foreigner-hating right winger. All it says is that I am doing the necessary. Like a good boy scout, I am prepared in advance.

If needed I will defend myself. With as much force as is necessary.

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Afghan Muslims Kill Christian Eye Doctors

A group of eight western aid workers were recently killed by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

No doubt these eye doctors did a lot of great stuff to help Afghans. The problem is they chose to provide this aid to the Afghans as members of a Christian group. How dumb. They must have had some kind of a sicko Christian death wish.

The intolerant Muslims thought that they were trying to convert people to Christianity. The Christian group denies it, but I don't doubt that they were. In the battle of the true-believer religious wars the Muslims won this round.

The next time any aid workers try to help the Afghans they need to do so as part of a purely secular group, not as part of a group of Christian religious fanatics.

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Mosque Opposition

Just like in Europe, there is currently widespread opposition to mosque construction all over the country. There are also some people who criticize this as being unfair to the Muslim religion.

These people say that a church or synagogue expansion might get some opposition because of potential traffic or parking problems, but feel that the opposition to mosques is very different. It infringes upon the basic American concept of freedom of religion.

What I think is missing is context, perspective, and a little bit of reason. Of course a church would not be allowed which openly supports neo-Nazis, Hitler, and advocates the mass killing Jews. If a church wanted to incorporate its beliefs in lynching black people and the inherent inferiority of dark skinned people, society would not stand for it.

We make value judgments all the time. It is expected that any civilized society would do so. If society thinks that the Muslim religion is openly trying to impose sharia law above and controlling secular democratic civil law, then they have every right, even the moral obligation, to oppose the Muslims.

Religious freedom is part of America's heritage. It is what guarantees me the right to not believe in talking snakes or guys surviving while living inside of big fishes. But religious freedom does not allow civil laws to be broken or superseded. It says sexual harassment and female genital mutilation is not permissible in America, regardless of what some so-called religion says.

From my perspective all organized religions seem to be harmful and dangerous, but the Muslim faith is clearly worse than most. I have no problem with Muslim being banned, along with the KKK and the Nazis.



LINK: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/us/08mosque.html?ref=us

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Economic Stagnation Is Creating a Nation of Lost Youths

Charles Hugh Smith has published an earthshaking article in Daily Finance about how in Japan, twenty years of economic stagnation is having devastating effects on the kids who grew to maturity during this time.

You can read the entire article at: http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/careers/japans-economic-stagnation-is-creating-a-nation-of-lost-youths/19580780/?sms_ss=email

This article has such insight for America as well that I have copied it here too:

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What happens to a generation of young people when:

They are told to work hard and go to college, yet after graduating they find few permanent job opportunities?

Many of the jobs that are available are part-time, temporary or contract labor?
These insecure jobs pay one-third of what their fathers earned?
The low pay makes living at home the only viable option?
Poor economic conditions persist for 10, 15 and 20 years in a row?

For an answer, turn to Japan. The world's second-largest economy has stagnated in just this fashion for almost 20 years, and the consequences for the "lost generations" that have come of age in the "lost decades" have been dire. In many ways, Japan's social conventions are fraying under the relentless pressure of an economy in
seemingly permanent decline.

While the world sees Japan as the home of consumer technology juggernauts such as Sony and Toshiba and high-tech "bullet trains" (shinkansen), beneath the bright lights of Tokyo and the evident wealth generated by decades of hard work and Japan Inc.'s massive global export machine lies a different reality: increasing poverty and decreasing opportunity for the nation's youth.

Suddenly, It's Haves and Have Nots

The gap between extremes of income at the top and bottom of society -- measured by the Gini coefficient -- has been growing in Japan for years. To the surprise of many outsiders, once-egalitarian Japan is becoming a nation of haves and have-nots.

The media in Japan have popularized the phrase "kakusa shakai," literally meaning "gap society." As the elite slice prospers and younger workers are increasingly marginalized, the media has focused on the shrinking middle class. For example, a best-selling book offers tips on how to get by on an annual income of less than 3 million yen ($34,800). Two million yen ($23,000) has become the de-facto poverty line for millions of Japanese, especially outside high-cost Tokyo.

More than one-third of the workforce is part-time as companies have shed the famed Japanese lifetime employment system, nudged along by government legislation that abolished restrictions on flexible hiring a few years ago. Temp agencies have expanded to fill the need for contract jobs as permanent job opportunities have dwindled.

Many fear that as the generation of salaried baby boomers dies out, the country's economic slide might accelerate. Japan's share of the global economy has fallen below 10% from a peak of 18% in 1994. Were this decline to continue, income disparities would widen and threaten to pull this once-stable society apart.

Downsized Expectations, Opting Out

The Japanese term ''freeter'' is a hybrid word that originated in the late 1980s, just as Japan's property and stock market bubbles reached their zenith. It combines the English ''free'' and the German ''arbeiter,'' or worker, and describes a lifestyle that's radically different from the buttoned-down rigidity of the permanent-employment economy: freedom to move between jobs. This absence of loyalty to a company is totally alien to previous generations of driven Japanese "salarymen'' who were expected to uncomplainingly turn in 70-hour work weeks at the same company for decades, all in exchange for lifetime employment.

Many young people have come to mistrust big corporations, having seen their fathers or uncles eased out of ''lifetime'' jobs in the relentless downsizing of the past 20 years. From the point of view of the younger generations, the loyalty their parents unstintingly gave to companies was wasted.

The freeters have also come to see diminishing value in the grueling study and tortuous examinations required to compete for the elite jobs in academia, industry and government. With opportunities fading, long years of study are perceived as pointless. In contrast, the freeter lifestyle is one of hopping between short-term jobs and devoting energy and time to foreign travel, hobbies or other interests.

As long ago as 2001, Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare estimated that 50% of high school graduates and 30% of college graduates quit their jobs within three years of leaving school. The downside is permanently shrunken income and prospects. These trends have led to an ironic moniker for the freeter lifestyle: dame-ren (no good people). The dame-ren get by on odd jobs, low-cost living and drastically diminished expectations.

Changed Men

The decline of permanent employment has also led to the unraveling of social mores and conventions. The young men who reject their fathers' macho work ethic are derisively called "herbivores" or "grass-eaters" because they're uncompetitive and uncommitted to work.

Take the bestselling book The Herbivorous Ladylike Men Who Are Changing Japan, by Megumi Ushikubo, president of Infinity, a Tokyo marketing firm. Ushikubo claims that about two-thirds of all Japanese men aged 20-34 are now partial or total "grass-eaters." "People who grew up in the bubble era [of the 1980s] really feel like they were let down. They worked so hard and it all came to nothing," says Ushikubo. "So the men who came after them have changed."

This has spawned a disconnect between genders so pervasive that Japan is experiencing a "social recession" in marriage, births and even sex, all of which are declining.

With a wealth and income divide widening along generational lines, many young Japanese are attaching themselves to their parents. Surveys indicate that roughly two-thirds of freeters live at home. Freeters ''who have no children, no dreams, hope or job skills could become a major burden on society, as they contribute to the decline in the birthrate and in social insurance contributions,'' Masahiro Yamada, a sociology professor wrote in a magazine essay titled, ''Parasite Singles Feed on Family System.''

Take My Son, Please

"Parasite singles" is yet another harsh term for some Japanese youths. It refers to those who never leave home, sparking an almost tragicomical countertrend of Japanese parents who actively seek mates to marry off their "parasite single" offspring as the only way to get them out of the house.

Even more extreme is hikikomori, or "acute social withdrawal," a condition in which the young live-at-home person nearly walls himself off from the world by never leaving his room. Though acute social withdrawal in Japan affect both genders, impossibly high expectations for males from middle- and upper-middle-class families has led many sons, typically the eldest, to refuse to leave home. The trigger for this complete withdrawal from social interaction is often one or more traumatic episodes of social or academic failure. That is, the inability to meet standards of conduct and success that can no longer be met in diminished-opportunity Japan.

The unraveling of Japan's social fabric as a result of eroding economic conditions for young people offers Americans a troubling glimpse of the high costs of long-term economic stagnation.

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James Bond

During the late 1960's I think I read all of the Ian Fleming James Bond books.

Such a wonderful combination. The good guy wins in the end, but only after great exertion, a couple of grueling physical fights, and along he way he meets and charms at least one really beautiful, nice young lady. Of course they drink the finest of alcohol and eat the best food, then have wonderful sex. The bad guys are normally out to get him, and he usually has to kill a few of them, in self defense.

At that time I was at the beginning of things. Just about to finish college and begin my first real career.

Now forty years later I have finished the working part of my life. I've traveled a good bit, have lived abroad twice, and for the most part had a wonderful career.

I have been battling leukemia for eight years now, and it is now beginning to have a major impact on my life. I'm sure that I'm nearing the end of the journey; maybe months, maybe a few years. But I will not live to 80 or 90, that is clear.

I just finished watching the final James Bond movie. They have made twenty two of them so far. It has been a very nice journey.

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Trying To Pick A Fight

Do you want to be rude? You know how the redneck cop gets closer and closer to that drunk, speaking real loud, and intentionally invading deeper and deeper into the guy's space? It is just a tactic. The cop is hoping that the alcoholic will try to swing on him so that he can taser him, beat him up a bit, and then arrest him. It is a wildly aggressive act disguised as something relatively innocent. Completely dishonest.

Just try going to the Dachau suburb of Munich, Germany and building a place where neo-Nazis can meet, study, and commune together in a peaceful interfaith setting. Oh going to Hiroshima and building a beautiful museum which glorifies nuclear weaponry.

I am not any more anti-Muslim than I am opposed to most other organized religions. Talking snakes, guys living inside of big fishes, virgins having babies, and eating the body-drinking the blood of God's reanimated son is all a bit weird too. But I am strongly opposed to aggression and fighting. Sometimes one has no choice, and then my goal is to kick ass solidly, effectively, and quickly. But in most cases talking is vastly preferable to fighting.

Building a Muslim mosque or community center as close as possible to ground zero in New York City is this same kind of dishonest passive-aggressive act. Trying to pick a fight against Christians and Western civilization as a whole, all the while smiling beatifically and pretending that this is about encouraging interfaith dialogue.

Oh Horseshit. Give me a break! This is an intentionally and overtly aggressive act by the Muslims. Maybe these freako 12th century killers who follow the teachings of Mohamed could try renting some space in the Jewish community center rather than building their own place at Ground Zero.

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Field Stripping a 40 caliber Smith & Wesson Sigma SW40VE

After reading about the truck driver at the beer distributor back east who killed so many people yesterday, I went out this morning and bought a new 40 caliber semiautomatic handgun with a magazine which holds 14 rounds of ammunition. It was made in America by Smith & Wesson and is a Sigma model SW40VE. The Crimson Trace laser grip sight is on order, and I guess I will probably receive it sometime late next week.

The gun came with two magazines, and a mail in rebate where you receive two more magazines for free. So this thing can be a walking arsenal, holding 56 rounds of very deadly 40 caliber ammunition. Surely that is some kind of wild ass overkill for self protection.

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It is a bit strange...the weaker I get from this leukemia, the more important it gets for me to be able to defend myself. I guess some kind of weird, old geezer machismo.

The 40 caliber round is rather new compared with the other commonly used ammo. It was newly developed in 1990 when the FBI decided to upgrade from the 9mm round to a 10mm round. The 40 caliber S&W ammunition is now widely used by law enforcement personnel all over America, largely having replaced both the .38 Special + P and the 9mm.

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Of course the 380 allows one to have a really tiny, light weight handgun. But the 380 is at the very bottom of the firepower range typically required for self protection. You can sure get a great little concealed-carry weapon using the 380, like the Ruger LCP.

The quality isn't real good in this clip, but if you watch it a couple of times everything should be pretty clear.
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Gay Marriage in California

The citizens in California had previously decided that same sex marriage was not legal. This is participatory democracy in action. A court in California yesterday overrulled the voters saying that this law prohibiting homosexuals from marrying each other was unconstitutional, regardless of what the citizens of the state wanted. Supporters of this decision re-legalizing gay marriage have been saying, “This is not about religion.”

I consider myself a bit of an expert on marriage since I've done it three times. I've learned a bit in the process.

There are some irrational souls who have absolute “faith” in their religion, even though reason and human rationality suggests that talking snakes and men living inside of big fishes is completely absurd. These same people sometimes take their holy books as 100% literal fact. Some of them feel that their religion does indeed prohibit homosexuality and most certainly prohibits same sex marriage.

I'm not one of these people. The religious approach to this quandary seems odd and a bit perverse to me. My opposition to same sex marriage is more rational.

It is very difficult to stay married to the same person year after year. Raising children is a demanding, expensive, and thankless task. Nowadays when both parents have to work just to get by, it is close to impossible to do as good a job of parenting as one would like. It is well documented that kids turn out best when they have both a mother and a father. Since having kids and then raising them properly is so vital to society, and because it is so difficult, society has decided to grant certain minimum financial subsidies to the two marital partners. Sharing of some social security old age benefits upon the death of one marital partner, etc.

On average two men or two women do not do as good a job of raising children as when there is a male-female partnership doing all it can to provide for and raise the kids as well as possible.

Marriages are easy to get into, but horribly difficult and expensive to terminate. I can see no use for marriage, either same sex or opposite sex, unless children are involved.

I think that much of the desire to get same sex marriage legalized is financial. Queers wanting the same government financial subsidies that straight couples get. There is no justification for financially subsidizing childless marriages. The other reason gays want same sex marriage is to prove that their homosexual relationship is Just As Good As A Straight Marriage!! Well, sorry you homos, but it is not. The relationships which are most valuable to society are those which result in procreation and continuation of the culture and the species.

If gays and lesbians want to derive sexual pleasure from each other, fine, who cares? If they really care deeply about each other and want to live together forever and ever, fine, who cares? Gays are only a very small minority in society. Their little perversions are really quite irrelevant in the larger scope of things. But there is no logical reason why society should subsidize their relationship.

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Mass Murder At A Beer Distributor

A 34 year old black truck driver for a beer distributor in Connecticut went on a killing rampage with his two 9 mm handguns after a disciplinary hearing where he has shown very clear video footage of himself stealing beer from the company. He mostly shot supervisors and other older white men. He killed eight beople. Later, after calling his mother on the phone, he shot himself and died.

Most of the employees of the firm are white, and the black truck driver felt that he had been treated with overt racism by the company's owners, supervisors, and his colleagues. Maybe they actually are mostly white racists, and they did say and do terrible things to him. This didn't give him to right to kill anyone. For goodness sake, he was the one who got caught openly stealing from the company.

If some or most of those 50 year old white managers had been armed with concealed handguns, it is probable that the death toll would have been reduced substantially. How often do bad guys or drugged up lunatics need to engage in this sort of mass murder before the innocent people will begin to see that they need to be able to protect themselves?

You don't need to be some kind of racist, low IQ, right wing gun phreak to recognize that the right of self protection is pretty basic. It is even enshrined in the second amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

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When One Of Your Family Members Steals From You

Three times my son began college. Each time he “was really going to do it this time.” So I paid for his books and tuition up front. And each time he did not even finish one semester. He did not tell me that he had quit going either...he just took my money and ran.

The fourth time he wanted to begin college I told him that if he saved his receipts and sent them to me along with his grades at the end of each semester, I would reimburse him once he had successfully finished the semester. He was absolutely outraged. How could I possibly be such an uncaring, hateful parent? After all, everything bad which had gone wrong during his life was not ever due to him making bad decisions, it was all my fault. I didn't hear from him again for many years. When I finally did it was because he hoped once again that he could con some money out of me.

I told him that I would give him a shoulder to cry on, but that me giving him money was over. In fact that it was almost time for him to begin helping me out financially in my old age. Once again I didn't hear from him for a long time.

He recently tried to con some money out of me once again. He is now 34 years old, and it is his goal to finish his bachelor of science degree in environmental engineering within the next year or so. He has indicated that he wants to get a master's degree next. I wish him well, but I am no longer “the wallet.”


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I worked and lived in Europe for 15 years. My older sister let me know that she would like to visit Europe, but that she couldn't afford to. She spent her career as a school teacher, teaching poor elementary school kids in the bad part of town. She had lived in West Texas her whole life, and had never even visited Europe. I mailed her a nice check so that she could come visit me.

Without having any discussion with me, she used my money to buy her youngest child a lemon of an American car. It was a red convertible. Had she chosen to discuss the matter with me I might well have said that I would be willing to contribute to the automobile expenses of my niece. But I wasn't consulted. Nor was I thanked.

I certainly would have expressed my reservations about them buying a hard driven, high mileage American car. I have a strong bias towards the quality, reliability, and good fuel economy of Japanese cars. Certainly for a college kid to commute back and forth to school they are vastly more practical. I would have brought up that white cars are far more reflective of the sun's energy, so they are cooler, and thus more comfortable in the hot west Texas desert. I probably would have suggested that sexy red cars are often hot-rodded brutally, and I most certainly would have brought up the multitude of liabilities involved with owning and driving a rag top.

Since I was not consulted in advance, is it fair of me to view this event as an example of one of family members stealing from me?

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Chemo-Poison

One of the drugs used as a therapy for chronic lymphocytic leukemia was previously sold as a rat poison.

Cancer patients who undergo the indignities of chemotherapy are often in a desperate life-and-death battle. They are hardly in a good position to accurate weigh the benefits and side effect of going ahead with various therapies. One expects your doctor(s) to do this, ethically and kindly. Some cancer patients are not properly informed by the medical profession. The patient assumes that by undergoing these terribly painful infusions of poisons he has a good chance that his cancer might be cured. Or at least that his productive, useful, and happy life expectancy will be increased by several years minimum.

Chemotherapy often makes you vomit, it can make you bald, eliminates your ability to taste, takes outrageous amounts of your (family's) money, and may even give you what patients call “chemo brain.” I take this phrase to mean that your brain function apparently is substantially reduced; or in street language you become just plain stupid. The medical profession frowns on using this phrase.

Many times the physician who is recommending or administering the chemotherapy is fully aware, and does not admit to the patient, that the expensive “therapy” he is performing will only work in a small subset of patients. Or that even when it is effective, overall life expectancy may be only be increased by two or three months.

I was diagnosed with leukemia eight years ago, and the negative effects of this CLL are now completely dominating my life. One can imagine that when I see desperate cancer patients and their families being conned and taken advantage of, I get rather angry and upset. I can think of few things more cruel and viscous than taking advantage of the dying or their families.

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The Internet Is So Useful

I got an email this morning from Amazon telling me that the Russell Brand movie Get Him To The Greek is now available for pre-order. They give a price guarantee, so if the price goes down (likely) before the DVD is actually released, I will pay the lower price.

Their asking price for this DVD right now is $24.49 so I needed to add something else to the order so as to get the $25 free shipping. I found a pack of BIC pens for about a dollar. This whole process works great. The price for the DVD will almost certainly decline, but since my original order was for more than $25 I will still get free shipping.

I could vaguely remember hearing about this moving, but that is all. I like Russell Brand, but I thought I remembered some really bad reviews. So I Googled it. I found a review by of all people the Nobel prize winning economist Paul Krugman, who I like and respect. After reading his review I went ahead and pre-ordered the DVD. It all took me about 5 minutes...the longest time being taken looking for something really cheap to add to the order to get me free shipment.

This is the internet working as intended!

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Legalizing Marijuana in California

For the last 50 years or more the rest of America has followed several years behind California. Sometimes decades. The Californians have been the leaders in many fields.

It now is more than possible that legalization of recreational use of marijuana may take place in California late this fall. This would certainly have a major impact on the rest of America, and also on Mexico. The Mexican gangs and crime syndicates have already begun diversifying into other illegal activities like extortion and kidnapping.

I have mixed feelings about this. If marijuana is legalized, cocaine, ecstasy, crystal meth, heroin, and the other opiates may well follow. I hate to just write off all these drug addicts who are going to ruin their bodies and their lives.

I have seen the terrible things which come from being an alcoholic. I am not one, but I sure have known more of them than I would have liked. We have to be realistic and realize that all we can hope to do is regulate marijuana and tax it. We proved during prohibition that making possession or consumption of alcoholic beverages illegal was wildly unsuccessful. After many billions of dollars and thousands of deaths one would think that we would be smart enough to figure the same thing out about these other intoxicants.

It probably is about time to try something radically different. What we have been doing since Richard Nixon was President sure hasn't worked.

NOTE: I haven't used marijuana in many years, nor have I consumed any alcoholic beverages. But it seems like I still have alcoholics and addicted recreational and prescription drug users around me practically everywhere I look. It is sad, but the war-on-drugs approach sure hasn't proven to be the solution to the problem.

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American Gun Freedom

Americans have the right and advantage of being armed - unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.
-- James Madison, The Federalist Papers


"As to the species of exercise, I advise the gun. While this gives [only] moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise, and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun, therefore, be the constant companion to your walks."
-- Thomas Jefferson, writing to his teenaged nephew.


An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life.
-- Robert A. Heinlein, "Beyond This Horizon", 1942



Whether the authorities be invaders or merely local tyrants, the effect of such [gun control] laws is to place the individual at the mercy of the state, unable to resist.
-- Robert A. Heinlein, 1949


"Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of arms."
--Aristotle

Forcing People To Buy Health Insurance

Let me begin by saying that I think everyone in America should have full access to the health care system. Even visitors and illegals. The poor should receive just as good a health treatment as the wealthy. I was and still am deeply offended by Obama dismissing “single payer” and the “vigorous government option.”

But how would we pay for this you ask? By slashing expenditures on intelligence gathering and the military. A fifty to sixty percent cut should do the job nicely.

I do have genuine misgivings about making it a federal law that all Americans must purchase health insurance from a private company. I am also required by law to have liability insurance on my car; but I can choose to not do so. All I have to do is quit driving a motor vehicle.

I sincerely believe in the idea of universal health care, but this is not what Obama was aiming for. His goal was cost containment.

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The War In Iraq Is Over

President Obama says that he will fulfill his commitment and end the war in Iraq when promised.

Oh, did he happen to mention that this means still keeping 50,000 American troops and lot of contractors (mercenaries) stationed there? The American troops will still be driving armored vehicles trying to avoid road side bombs; and they will still be fully armed. But Obama will no longer call them combat troops, their official name will change; so everything is cool.

The American taxpayer will still be paying their wages and all of the associated expenses, and these poor soldiers will still be stationed overseas away from their families in a hostile country.

But Obama says we will have pulled out all of our combat troops. Some would call this spin. Not me. I say, “Mr. President, you are a lying bastard. Just like you lied about when we would leave Afghanistan.”

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El Paso City Council Union Busting

Last night one of the El Paso City Representatives debated the head of the policeman's union on local television. Like most cities in America, El Paso is facing some very difficult budget issues.

I am not a cop and have never been. In fact I resent the arrogance of some law enforcement personnel as much as the next guy. But when I am really in desperate trouble, I expect the police to show up promptly. And then to do their job professionally. I'm not a big union organizer either. For most of my career I served in upper management, and the trade unions were on the other side of most issues.

Representative Susie Byrd is articulate, and she has done a good job of representing the people in her district. I have nothing negative to say about her, and in fact give her a great deal of praise.

Due to the same type of budget problems, the city of El Paso got the policeman's union to give back some of it's pay and benefits package last year. The policemen went along and tried to help out the city last year. This year the city has come back to them again, asking them to re-open negotiations on their pay and benefits package again. This year the El Paso city leaders got greedy and started out by asking the police to give back far more than last year.

The municipal budget does not include the biggest and most wasteful item, which is schools. The city budget is still quite varied. It contains some absolutely essential items, and also many others which are indeed important but which sit well down the priority ladder.

Adequately funding the police and the fire departments is essential.

What I see going on is a clear cut case of some behind the scenes rich and powerful people whose ideology detests giving genuine power and a reasonable wage to the working man. Rather than doing the necessary and making severe cuts in other non-essential items, some people are using the budget crisis to try and bust the El Paso Texas Police Union. Just because they hate the idea of powerful employee trade unions.

The police department in El Paso, Texas is far better than the one in Juarez, Mexico. New Orleans has a terribly corrupt police department. Los Angeles keeps giving us YouTube scenes of the cops brutally beating up poor people with dark skin.

Don't screw this up. If it isn't broken then don't fix it. This contract with the police union is a legally binding contract. It is not unreasonable. The El Paso city leaders need to stop trying to reopen it just to make some radical, extremist anti-union ideological point. Stop this union busting. Just get to work, accept reality, and go find the missing money somewhere else.

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Social Unrest in Greece

The situation in Greece is getting ugly, and all indications are that this is just the start. Greece is the home of democracy and tourists still flock to the Parthenon on the Acropolis hill. I did so 40 years ago.

The British newspaper The Guardian says: “The surge in violence comes amid rising social tensions over the austerity measures enforced by the government in exchange for €110bn in emergency aid, the biggest bailout in history.

Mounting social unrest, waning support for political parties and record levels of unemployment among an increasingly radicalised youth are believed to have augmented the ranks of anti-establishment groups.”
LINK: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/01/greece-war-zone-revolutionaries-tourists

The above description is true...but the problem goes much further than this. The rich and upper middle class in Greece have made an art form of not paying their taxes. So the reverse Robin Hood phenomenon exists. The poor working classes and lower middle classes are supporting the comfortable lifestyle of the upper social classes.

America is moving in this direction. As income taxes become less progressive and legislators enact tax cuts targeted at the wealthy, we see the upper classes paying less and less of their fair share. Americans are a docile people. Even among white people the slavery mentality lives on. We do not protest, we don't have general strikes. The trade union movement is almost dead. But eventually the American people will wake up to the reality of what is happening. When that does happen America may well follow in the footsteps of the Greeks.

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